Pakistan : Terrorist Wahabi Islamic Rep Pakistan 6

[Naresh]

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[url="http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=24205&Cat=9&dt=1/6/2011"]The murder[/url]



On the assassination of Salmaan Taseer, sweets were distributed, congratulations exchanged, and a sickening contentment was evident on the faces of quite a few people that I managed to interact with. In fact, certain individuals were heard saying that the Punjab governor deserved to be killed for criticising the blasphemy laws. And, yes, the people I mention were apparently educated, “enlightened,” middle-class citizens of the glorious Islamic Republic of Pakistan.



The effect of this brutal and sinister murder will not simply be confined to the event of the governor’s assassination. In fact, it will have a negative impact of creating in the public a perpetual and suffocating fear while engaging in public debates, questioning anything that the religious bigots have to say or analysing any interpretation that they posit. By killing the governor, purportedly for his speaking ill of an error-riddled law, the Right-inclined have essentially tried to shut down any debate which will dilute their influence, weaken their suffocating hold over Pakistani society and thereby their monopoly over anything overtly religious.



One of the arguments in favour of Salmaan Taseer’s assassination is that he committed a grave crime in supporting an alleged blasphemer, namely Aasia Bibi, and in calling for the repeal of a “religious” law. This is despite the fact that Aasia Bibi is currently pursuing an appeal before the competent court of jurisdiction and, therefore, until the appeal is decided, her innocence or guilt is still a matter of dispute. Secondly, the blasphemy laws, as enacted by men are not God’s law but an interpretation of what God has commanded. They are susceptible to human error, and are therefore amenable to revision in order for them to be brought more in line with God’s commandments. In fact, any attribution of divinity to these man-made legislations would seem to contradict the very principles of blasphemy that the so-called religious zealots seek to protect.



Other than this, there are others who vehemently declare that Taseer brought about his own death by daring to voice his opinion about the flaws in the man-made blasphemy laws and the inaccuracies in the conviction of Aasia Bibi at the lower court level. For them, the blame did not lie with the cold-blooded murderer who took a Muslim’s life in the name of Islam, but rather at the doorstep of the person who simply opined about the correctness or inaccuracies of the drafting of a particular type of law. Such is the hypocrisy engrained in our “religious” clique that one maulana, asked on television whether he thought the assassin was wrong in what he did, refused to call the killer a criminal. He said he would leave that decision to the courts. Ironically, these very maulanas had issued fatwas against Salmaan Taseer and called him wajib-ul-qatl (deserving to be murdered) for simply airing views that contradicted theirs.



It is clear that the assassination of Salmaan Taseer will have serious consequences for the general public and people’s freedoms, whether they realise it or not. His death signifies not only an attack on the freedom of speech enshrined in the Constitution, but also on what is left of Jinnah’s Pakistan. [color="#FF0000"]Jinnah would probably have never created this country had he realised how we would eventually cede power and mortgage our lives to those who in fact were against the very idea of Pakistan.[/color]



If Jinnah were alive today, he wouldn’t have been around for long. He would probably have been killed by these extremists on trumped up charges of blasphemy. God help us.



The writer is a Fulbright Scholar and a lawyer based in Karachi. Email: basil.nabi@gmail.com



Cheers